


I wish it was more than a cake

by Raw_Ramen_Noodles



Series: To bake a cake [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - No Powers, BAMF James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, M/M, Miscommunication, Pansexual Tony Stark, Protective Pepper Potts, Texting, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony and Bruce raised him together, Tony is Peters foster dad, Vision is Bruce’s son but like, Vision is called Victor because Vision is a weird name for a human being, Weddings, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25167793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raw_Ramen_Noodles/pseuds/Raw_Ramen_Noodles
Summary: After being rejected by a man that Tony actually liked as a person, he goes home to his foster son who should really be studying for his SAT-or-Tony and Peter cuddle, I don’t make the rules
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Shuri, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Vision, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Vision
Series: To bake a cake [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1821058
Comments: 6
Kudos: 164





	I wish it was more than a cake

**Author's Note:**

> This won’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read It was only supposed to be a cake, but if you’re just here for Tony & Peter, carry on. This is a continuation of chapter 3 from Tony’s perspective!
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING! There are light mentions of s**c*d*, but nothing is said in explicit terms

Tony walks out into the rain, a cake box tucked delicately under his rain coat. He has his hood up, but even then, the heavy chill of the rain still stings against his cheeks. He had thought it was going so well, so nicely that he hadn't stopped to think about the consequences of his actions. 

He was a celebrity, which Steve had been polite about up until now, but there was no telling what he would do now. Tony could see the tabloids now, TONY STARK FORCES HIMSELF ONTO STRAIGHT MAN. It wasn't exactly true, but they never really were. His feet splash against wet concrete as he walks out to his car parked at the end of the street. He unlocks it and slumps into the drivers seat, setting the cake box on the other seat. Dazzling blue eyes swim in his thoughts, crinkled with the lines of happiness. 

Tony sighs, tugging his jacket off awkwardly and throwing it in the back of the car. It slaps against the expensive leather seat with a wet noise, but he doesn't care. He sighs, setting his head in his hands. Truth told, he had thought it was the right thing to do. How he could've so grossly misunderstood the situation was beyond him, but everyone always told him that he was better with machines than people. Really, they were right. If there was a problem with a machine, you could fix it. That was half of the fun. Fixing people never works, they have to fix themselves, which is hard for Tony to understand and do. He didn't know how to help other people, and he didn't know how to fix himself. His own childhood was filled with closed doors and cold money. His teen years were the product of having no freedom growing up as well as being so far detached from his peers. Emotionally, he was decades behind them, but mentally he was decades ahead. The only common ground he could seem to find was alcohol. If everyone is blackout drunk, it's easier to just talk without fear of rejection. Of course the drinking led to sex and the sex led to scandals in the paper every other week and his current status as a playboy. He wasn't really, when it came down to it. He just craved intimacy in a way that people didn't relate to so instead he would take what he could get, which was a whole lot of one night stands. 

Steve had seemed like he might be different, if only because he hadn't thrown himself at Tony's feet. Now he realized too late that that was because Steve wasn't interested, not because he was interested in a way that was different from the usual. 

Tony glares over at the absolutely delicious cake, feeling a coil of emotion in his throat, threatening to spill out. He was never rejected; not because he was hot and rich (even if that had something to do with it), but because he was usually so sure. So certain before he made a move. Besides, it wasn't like he made that many moves anymore, when he could just walk around and get someone to come up the tower. 

Out of his mirror, he sees Steve leave the bakery soon after Tony himself left, his own good pulled up as the blonde walked past all the cars on the street. He was probably going to get a cold. If Tony came in in a few days, he could probably avoid the baker entirely if he was sick. 

Not that that wasn't a terrible thought. Tony just really didn't want to have to face the man again. 

He puts the car into drive and hurries away, tires squeaking on wet asphalt. It was late and wet, so not many people were out anymore; there was hardly any traffic on his way back to Stark Tower, which he was great full due to his only half attention on the road. The other half was dedicated to squelching mental images of blue eyes and broad shoulders, fading into a look of panic and the frame of a man who was trying to shrink away forever. 

Not a typical homophobic response, but not unheard of for a relatively nontoxic straight man. 

Tony parks in the garage below the tower, getting out of the car. He takes the cake but leaves the jacket, too drained to care. His feet feel heavy as he trudged into the elevator, not needing to tell JARVIS where they were going before it moves. The doors slide open on the penthouse floor and he steps out, looking down at the cake. 

In a moment of what feels suspiciously like the onslaught of a panic attack, he pops the trash can lid open and dumps the cake, slamming the lid back down. It rings through the room and Tony's eyes close, his chest heavy with difficult breaths. "Tony?" A quiet voice calls out from down the hall. 

Tony's eyes snap open and he rubs away the swelling tears, looking at the figure of a nervous Peter Parker. "Nothin to worry about Pete," he says, displaying an award winning press smile. 

The teen comes out anyway, his arms crossed over his chest. "What are you doing?" 

"I'm just going to grab a snack and head down to the lab," Tony lies, biting back his tongue. His head is desperate to tell the truth, to explain to Peter exactly why he was upset. But Peter was busy. He had an SAT to study for, and Tony wasn't going to take him away from that. 

Peter squints at him. Damnit, that boy was too smart. "Don't lie to me Tony," he grumbles, pulling down a box of pop tarts. He offers one to Tony with a raised eyebrow. 

A heavy beat of silence hangs between them, a battle of wills if you may. Peter wins when Tony takes the pop tart, collapsing in the nearest barstool with a sigh. "That guy. The one at the bakery I told you about." Peter nods, unwrapping his own pop tart. "Well, things got a little out of hand and... ah. I kissed him." 

Peter's mouth falls open in a sort of happy shock. "You did what?" 

"Don't look at me like that. He jumped away from me like I had a knife. I can't get the look in his eyes out of my mind." Tony takes a bite of pop tart, splitting through frosting into strawberry filling that only serves to make him remember the way the kiss felt. "He looked like a deer caught in the headlights and told me I had to leave." Tony furiously neglects to meet the eyes of the nosy teenager in front of him. 

"You wanna watch Monty Python?" Peter says after a short while. 

Tony shuts his eyes. "You've gotta study kid." Yes. Yes he wanted to watch Monty Python, what the hell kind of question was that. 

"I can take a break for my favorite dad," Peter says simply , tapping Tony's hand with his pop tart. "Hey J can you cue it up?" Peter steps away to make popcorn and Tony relaxes, feeling the tension leave his body. Peter was a good kid. 

"Of course sir," JARVIS says, the TV turning on as if of its own accord and switching to the display screen. 

The loud sounds of the popcorn machine follow shortly and Tony finally looks up at Peter, who politely ignores the glistening in Tony's eyes. "Thanks kiddo." 

Peter waves him off. "Go sit, I'll be over in a second." 

Tony obliges, unable to come up with a reason not to move. He collapses into the largest couch, leaning his head against the arm rest. The lights dim as Peter walks over with a bowl of freshly popped corn, the teen sitting himself directly between Tony's legs, his weight acting a little like one of those anti anxiety blankets. The movie starts playing as soon as Peter settles, tossing popcorn into his mouth. Tony takes a handful, watching the screen intently. "He doesn't deserve you, Tony," Peter says at a lull in the action. 

Those simple words are nearly enough to bring him to tears. Peter was such a good kid, even if he was a pain in Tony's ass. He wasn't really Tony's kid, but he may as well be. Peter had lost both his parents in a freak accident at the young age of 2, and his aunt and uncle had taken him in for a few years. Then Ben died. Everything changed. Even with the generous salary of an SI employee, May couldn't afford to take care of Peter, pay off all of Ben's secret gambling debts, and fight her reemerging addiction. It was a long battle before she gave up. All her and Ben's debt fell onto the then 8 year old, twice orphaned Peter Parker. Tony had been in a bad place back then too, so if it hadn't been for Pepper who had been a friend of May's he never would've known what was going to happen to Peter. With no family left, he would be sent to foster care, likely slipping into irreversible poverty the second he left the orphanage. 

Instead, Tony swooped the kid up, fostering the very depressed young Peter Parker and paying off every cent of his debt. The decision had taken months to fully register for Tony, and for that time he had stuck Peter in the corner of whatever room he was in and ignored him. He wasn't really fit to be a dad, he was just keeping him off the streets. Of course, that all changed when he walked in one night on Peter sobbing on his bed. That was all it took to turn Tony into an actual father. He got Peter therapy and eventually got the kid to open up. That was around the same time that a 12 year old Victor was dropped off with Bruce, who apparently had a kid, to Tony's eternal amusement. Peter attached to Victor in a way that nobody had been expecting, least of all moody and spiteful Victor. Bruce and Victor moved in with Peter and Tony in the tower then, and for a while they were one big happy family. Victor opened up too with Bruce and Tony, and he and Pete were practically brothers now. Of course now, Vic was an adult and Peter was close to following after him. Both boys were of genius level intellect, so hardly a day went by when at least one of them wasn't in the lab doing something. Right now, both of them were in Tony's will as equal benefactors to the Stark Empire given that he had no biological family of his own.

Not that it was a big deal. Tony was an adult. He didn't need to get married, he didn't need to have kids, he didn't need any of it. Sometimes though, he really wishes he could have someone to share his life with. 

Unfortunately, it seemed that that wasn't meant to be. 

At least he still had his little patched together family. Bruce, Victor, Peter. Pepper and Rhodey too, even if they didn't live in the tower anymore. It was really far on the down low, but Pepper was actually pregnant right now. The marriage had been planned and set in place before she had even realized. She was only two weeks in now, so she wasn't showing at all which was lucky given that she had bought the dress before.

So Tony was going to be an Uncle again, and this time, he would be able to spoil that little kid from the second they're born.

Peter begins snoring about halfway through the movie, not that Tony can really blame him with how much he's been studying lately. He's pulled at least two all nighters in the past week to do homework. Worst part is, he wants to do it all himself, not that Tony could really help with English anyway.

But speaking of Pepper and Rhodey, Tony shifts carefully to get his phone out of his pocket without waking up Peter. He opens the group chat with them and types out a quick message. 

**Tony:** i don't need a +1 to the wedding

He puts it down, letting his phone sit on Peters back, his hand resting over the phone. Peter snores once and Tony's heart melts. He was a good kid. The kids at his school were assholes, but lucky for them, Peter was too good of a kid to let Tony have at them or even have a press conference with Peter. Still, Tony wasn't entirely useless, and he had connections with the royal family of Wakanda, so as soon as the SATs were over, Pete was taking a week off to hang out with Princess Shuri. Unfortunately that meant he wasn't attending Pepper and Rhodey's reception, but Tony insisted on Peter taking off for Wakanda the second the ceremony was over. His phone buzzes under his hand. 

**Pepper:** Don't tell me you chickened out Stark.

 **Tony:** i didn't, actually

 **Tony:** he's not interested

 **Pepper:** Why the hell not?

 **Tony:** dunno

 **Tony:** but I kissed him and he told me that I had to leave

 **Tony:** it was like I electrocuted him or something

 **Pepper:** Oh Tony...

 **Rhodey:** Do you need us to come over?

 **Tony:** no, Peters got it under control

 **Tony:** kids sleeping on my chest

 **Pepper:** Awwww. 

**Rhodey:** He's going to be a great big brother. 

**Tony:** duh, I'm a great dad

 **Rhodey:** Yeah, sure. 

**Rhodey:** You want me to beat Steve's ass?

 **Tony:** to protect my honor?

 **Tony:** ya I'm good

Peter shifts on Tony's chest and Tony rubs his back gently. Rhodey was right, Peter was going to make one hell of a big brother. 

**Pepper:** If he tries anything with the press, I'll have his ass reeling with legal proceedings. 

**Tony:** again, to preserve my honor? what's left to preserve Ms. Potts?

 **Pepper:** That's not why. It's because nobody messes with my family. 

**Pepper:** Nobody. 

**Rhodey:** And you're selling yourself short Stark. You've saved countless lives with relief programs and advancements in technology. 

**Tony:** ok, thanks guys

 **Tony:** love you

 **Pepper:** Love you too Tony.

 **Rhodey:** I wasn't done, and I didn't miss that.

 **Rhodey:** But I love you too.

 **Tony:** i'm gonna head to bed

So Tony resigns himself to sleeping on the couch, loath to disturb the sleeping teen on his chest. He ignores the last few texts from his friends, instead sliding deeper into the couch.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasnt going to put this up until tomorrow but my mom was being a bitch to me, so here ya go! 
> 
> I wanted to write this one about Tony and his family, because I didn’t get much chance to reference it in the first installation, and I wanted some soft irondad. Sorry there’s no Steve though!
> 
> Also if you have any one shot ideas, leave them for me in the comments, I might vibe w that while I’m writing the next full installation!


End file.
